If you’ve ever wondered why so much music in the mainstream charts sounds similar, the fact that most of it was written by one of two men might have something to do with it. This suits the record labels fine, as we’re in age where the majority no longer seem to care who writes it.

And this problem could be about to get worse – songwriters just don’t get paid for their work in any meaningful way. Don’t take my word for it. Take it from Bjorn Ulvaeus out of Abba.

In an interview with the New York Times, he tells us in no uncertain terms what will happen if this trend isn’t reversed…

“Everyone is going to find out that more of the songwriters have turned to driving Ubers instead of songwriting… The top, elite layer, they will always make it. But there was a layer underneath that used to be able to live from their songwriting, and sometimes would push their way up to the elite because they had the time to develop.”

He also speaks about how “Waterloo” enabled him and Benny Andersson to make a full-time living out of writing songs – something that most people simply would not be able to do nowadays.

The only question is – is the industry listening? And what on earth are they going to do about it? You can’t have good songs without good songwriters…